by John Rea-Hedrick
Monday, November 10, 2008

I look each morning toward the sun
and find a new veil freshly hung.
In vain I seek to break to the bond
to see what truth lies just beyond
this ragged fringe I comprehend,
which like a shattered prism bends
my each attempt to know what’s true,
to see it in its naked hue
and own for once the smallest part
of something real within my heart.

I listen all across the earth,
but only hear an echo’s worth
of hollow voices that compete,
some with honey dripping sweet,
others with a sound like thunder,
tearing my beliefs asunder,
come to plunder seeds I’ve sown,
convicting me what I’ve well known
that this life’s burdened fruit I bear
is all for me with none to share.

I call each night on empty sky
though faint of hope for a reply.
In shadow cast by waning moon,
in aching fear of closing gloom;
against all hope, for I a wretch,
while nailed into this tomb of flesh,
still seek to know what life could hold,
this mystery I can’t unfold,
but no fair voice does it return
save mine alone for me to spurn.

I see no writing on the wall.
I hear no comfort sounds at all.
I speak; no voice answers my call.
No force exists that can forestall
this; our legacy begotten -
to forget and be forgotten.

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Inspired the seldom seen fourth Japanese monkey (‘do no evil’) of the well-known ‘see no evil’, ‘hear no evil’, ‘speak no evil’ trinity, this poem is another outcome of my explorations of formal structure to free up my fiction writing.  Written in iambic tetrameter it’s composed of three ten line stanzas followed by a six line envoy.  The rhyme scheme is organized in non-repeating couplets; no rhyme repeats throughout the entire poem.  The only exception is in first four lines of the final stanza and is done for emphasis.  Each stanza opens with a allusion towards the fourth monkey while exploring the experience of the each of the other three.  All other observations I could make I will withhold and will leave Shizaru Undone with you to make your own.